The present invention comprises a new Pelargonium, botanically known as Pelargonium interspecific, and hereinafter referred to by the variety name ‘PEQZ0042’.
‘PEQZ0042’ is a product of a planned breeding program. The new cultivar ‘PEQZ0042’ has pink flowers with a splash pattern held above the medium-green foliage, very heat and drought tolerant with continuous color through the most extreme summer heat, and exceptional edema tolerance on a well-branched, compact, freely flowering plant.
‘PEQZ0042’ originates from a hybridization in a controlled breeding program made in April 2013 in a greenhouse in Guatemala. The female parent was an unpatented, proprietary plant of P. interspecific parentage, identified as ‘11337-4’ with rose splash florets.
The male parent of ‘PEQZ0042’ was an unpatented, proprietary plant of P. interspecific parentage identified as ‘11333-6’ with pink splash colored florets, on a small plant that was moderate flowering, and was not heat tolerant. The resultant seed was sown in September 2013 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif.
‘PEQZ0042’ was selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in January 2014.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘PEQZ0042’ was accomplished when vegetative cuttings were propagated from the initial selection in the February 2014 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif.